NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende has cautioned the Salaries and Remuneration Commission against targeting MPs earnings for a salary cut. Instead, Marende said MPs should be paid even more money "commensurate" with their ‘"increased" responsibilities.
He defended the current pay structure which sees MPs take home an average salary of Sh851,000 per month excluding allowances and only pay tax on about Sh200,000. Their gross salary
is in excess of Sh1 million per month excluding other fringe benefits.
Marende justified the salaries for MPs during the launch of Salaries and Remuneration Commission’s job evaluation for state officers and constitutional offices held in Nairobi
yesterday.
Marende further said MPs needed a pay rise as the last time their salaries were reviewed was nine years ago.
In 2003, there was a significant review of their salaries to Sh200,000 with allowances averaging Sh651,000 making a gross pay of Sh851,000, excluding other fringe benefits. The salary review made Kenyan MPs amongst the highest paid in the world considering the size of its economy and GDP.
Their current take home pay is comparable to the Sh1.16 million that a US senator takes home every month.
“Remuneration of MPs in the recent past has come under increased public scrutiny leaving the lingering impression that they regularly increase their salaries. This comprehension though widespread is erroneous, if not wrongful,” Marende said. He added that increasing pay for MPs would increase the ability of parliament to discharge its legislation, representation and oversight mandates.
Marende said it was demeaning to pay MPs less money than the independent office holders, state officers and heads of commissions whom they vet and supervise.
“The emerging trend that is being encouraged to take root is worrisome and to my mind, is untenable or simply unjust. MPs gross package is Sh851, 000. My moles tell me for comparative purposes that the KRA commissioner general, an officer who reports to Parliament, takes home a total of Sh1.5 million while his commissioners earn an average of Sh1 million per month. The pay of the Finance ministry PS
is Sh1.13 million, the CIC chair is Sh1.24 million with his members Sh1.14 million.... This commission reports to the CIOC whose members earn Sh851, 000. The JSC members receive a sitting allowance of Sh80, 000 against MPs average of Sh10, 000 and the parliamentary committee allowance of Sh5, 000. Therefore, the remuneration of state officers no doubt requires harmonization and equity as well as a measure of parity recognizing the roles and responsibilities of each category,” he argued.
The job evaluation will be carried out by PriceWaterhouse Coopers in the next three months. The SRC chair Sarah Serem said the evaluation will help determine the actual value of the jobs and assign pay according to job responsibilities. This will help the commission meet its mandate of creating a fiscal sustainability of the public compensation bill. She said the exercise might see salaries of some of the state officers slashed.
“This is important. But I urge the commission not to interpret this in a manner that makes MPs an easy target because they are not easy answer to the puzzle of managing the public wage bill. The benefit of a robust Parliament far outweighs the cost of maintaining the legislature,” he said adding that Parliament only absorbed 2 per cent of the national budget.